Twelve-year-old Eliana Marisol de Las Casas is in her home kitchen in Harvey, explaining how she condensed her regular jambalaya recipe into one with five ingredients for an online cookbook for kids for which she was asked to contribute. (All their recipes have five ingredients.)

"Onion gives tons of flavor, so instead of the trinity, we just added ONIONS," she emphasized, her eyes bright, gesturing to leave no doubt about her commitment to flavor. "And Creole seasoning is key."

This is Kid Chef Eliana, a seventh grader at Immaculate Conception School in Marrero, who through sheer will, talent, lots of work and the management of her mother, Dianne de Las Casas, has become a local food personality. She is rapidly expanding into the bigger food universe, as well.

Her metier: Teaching other kids to cook.

After she was interviewed in July on the VoiceAmerica Kids radio network (which is heard around the world) the producer called five minutes later and asked to speak to her mom. She was offered her own radio show, which started two weeks later. It's taped on Thursdays after school, but she works on the recipes for it all week. She has been on "The Wendy Williams Show" and is booked to appear again in June.

Her second cookbook, "Cool Kids Cook Louisiana," was published this spring by Pelican Publishing, and several events are scheduled in the near future. Her first, "Eliana Cooks! Recipes for Creative Kids," sold a couple of thousand copies after her family self-published it in 2010.

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"I started cooking when I was four years old," Eliana says, as she carefully chops Thai apples, plums and fruit for an after school snack recipe. "Just little things to help in the kitchen."

Cooking runs in her family. "Since my nana's Filipino and my papa's Cajun, we have big parties," she says. Her grandparents are Cajun, Filipino, Cuban and Honduran. Dianne's mother, originally from the Philippines, lives five minutes away.

"At eight years old, I started a food blogging, all my recipes and things from dinner," Eliana says. "Then I created cooking tutorials for kids. Like a simple fruit tart. Video cooking lessons."

Even with all the appearances and commitments, she always puts school first, Eliana says.

"I come home and always do my homework first. Then I can start in the kitchen." She's active in Builders Club at school, a community service group, along with Quiz Bowl and Speech teams.

She gets ideas from everywhere: "Going to restaurants, watching cooking shows, looking at cookbooks. At restaurants, I order food and start to eat, then I pull out my phone and am taking notes, dissecting the taste: There's basil, there's garlic." (She has her own OpenTable account for reservations; when the family dines, chefs often send out special dishes for her.)

"I'm obsessed with watching cooking shows. I love Rachel Ray and The Chew. I learned all kinds of things from them, cooking tips, and so on," Eliana says.

In August, "The Chew" host and "Top Chef" fan favorite Carla Hall flew Eliana and seven other young cooks to New York to film a kids cooking competion, which had chefs John Besh and Aaron Sanchez as mentors. "SuperChef Kids" is a web series.

"She didn't win, but she came away with great friendships," her mother said.

The Thai apples are from Hong Kong Market, where Eliana and family shop frequently. She's into Asian food right now, she said. Recent recipe: Chive flower, watercress and beef stir-fry.

The chive flowers "wilt a lot like spinach, because they have a high water content. And watercress is like a cross between flat-leaf parsley and cilantro. We thin-sliced the beef, and put pickled daikon on top. And eat it with jasmine rice."

"I sous chef for her all the time," Dianne says as she opens a can of tomatoes for her daughter. Then, she asks Eliana if she should chop the green onions to garnish the jambalaya. She has to ask, she says, because Eliana likes to chop.

"We like to cook together," Eliana says, and then adds that her father, Antonio Casas, "makes the best ice cream. Dad has his specialities: Pizza, ice cream and bread. He gave me his New York cheesecake ice cream for my cookbook."

In the future, Eliana wants her own cooking show on the Food Network, along with a line of cookware and cooking tools for kids, and "I also want to have a line of chefwear for kids, chefs' coats, hats, and so on. I want to go to the Culinary Institute of America in New York and get a degree. It's also a college."

By this time, Eliana has done the jambalaya with five ingredients, started by sweating the onions in a tablespoon of water in a nonstick pot. After 30 minutes, the dish is ready to photograph. Her mother puts together a quick salad with the cut-up fruit left from the snack. The family sits down to dinner, missing one member, 22-year-old Soleil Lisette, a graphic designer and illustrator who did all the layout and illustrations for the new cookbook.

"She does all my branding, too," Eliana says of her sister.

Eliana's jambalaya with five ingredients is very good, much more complex than it sounds. One of the ingredients is Eliana's own Creole seasoning. She's made her own Eliana's Sabor! seasoning mix, as well. She put together the mix of paprika, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, salt and other spices when she was eight..

She wants to have her own line of seasonings, too.

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One of Eliana's favorite recipes in her new cookbook is this one.

Corn and Crab Bisque

Makes 6 to 8 servings

1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel corn

1 cup mixed chopped trinity (onion, bell pepper and celery)

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups chicken or seafood broth

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon Creole seasoning

12 ounces crab meat, picked over for shells and cartilage

Puree corn and trinity in a food processor or blender.

In a large pot, make a blonde roux by mixing butter and flour over medium heat only until it turns a beige color. Add the broth, heavy cream and milk. Stir in the corn puree and Creole seasoning. Simmer until thickened, about 10 minutes.

Add the crab and simmer 5 minutes more. Sserve hot.

Kid Chef Eliana's Jam On It Jambalaya

Makes 4 servings

1 medium onion, chopped

1 pound Andouille or other smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch rounds

1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon water

1 cup uncooked long grain white rice

1 tablespoon Creole seasoning

In a large non-stock pot over medium heat, saute onion and sausage with a tablespoon of water until onions are translucent and sausage is brown. Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed by rice. At 15 minutes, uncover, stir well, and re-cover.

Pickled Daikon

1/2 small daikon radish, shredded

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons sugar

Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

Chive Flower and Watercress Beef Stir Fry

1 pound flank steak, cut into bite sized slices

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 cups chive flowers, cut in half

2 large cloves garlic, grated

1 large bell pepper, sliced

1 teaspoon lemongrass paste

1 tablespoon ginger paste

1 teaspoon red chili paste

1 cup sliced mushrooms

3 cups watercress

Jasmine rice for serving

Marinated daikon (above) for serving

In a medium bowl, marinate the flank steak in rice vinegar, 1/4 cup sesame oil, and soy sauce. In the meantime, saute chive flowers in 1 tablespoon sesame oil in a wok on medium heat. Add all of the rest of the ingredients except watercress. Cook until bell peppers are soft and meat is done. Add the watercress on top. Do not stir in. Turn off the heat and let the watercress wilt slightly. Serve over jasmine rice and top with marinated daikon.